Shell shocked

As shells rained on the Madhu church the cries of the dying and the
injured filled the air

On the spot report by Leon Berenger and Chris Kamalendran at Madhu junction

Children
lay wounded, shell shocked and helpless on the beds of the run down hospital
in this northern city of Vavuniya.

They were the refugees from the bombed-out holy Catholic shrine of Madhu
attacked earlier this week and perhaps a bit lucky to be alive.

The artillery shells hit the church without warning. It was the first
direct attack on 'Our Lady Of Madhu' even since the ethnic conflict began
a little over two decades ago and the result was deadly and tragic.

No one, however, has yet claimed responsibility for the attack that
killed 41 people and wounded 61. Among the victims were a large number
of children, hardly out of their infancy, who were caught up in the war
along with their parents.

At the hospital in Vavuniya there is little hope for the more serious
victims owing to the lack of proper facilities and the dearth of medical
specialists, but the patients are left with little option but to remain
here.

It all began when the army in the Madhu Church vicinity hurriedly urged
the refugees to move into the church fearing a Tiger attack. A short while
later there were explosions followed by screams of the dying and injured,
Ratnam Rengamani 55, who caught several shrapnel wounds on her hands and
upper chest, told us from her hospital bed in Vavuniya.

"People were running everywhere. Mothers clutching their children and
desperately finding a way out of the inferno, while others were trying
to trace their loved ones. There was madness everywhere as the intensity
of the shells increased," Rengamani who was displaced due to earlier fighting
in the Jaffna peninsula said. Like most people we spoke to, she too was
unable to say who fired the shells, or from what direction they came.

The story of Subramanium Selvarani is perhaps the worst, since it is
both bloody and tragic. She lost her son, daughter and son-in-law in the
attack. They were killed in their sleep and she was lucky to escape with
serious shrapnel wounds to her right hand, Selvarani said unable to fight
back her tears while clinging to her driver husband for support.

Selvarani, living some five miles from the Madhu Shrine, was earlier
in the day advised by the local village headman to move out from the village,
since tension was building up in the area.

Along with her children, she later sought refuge at a UNHCR camp, but
here she was again told to move into the Church since an attack on the
shrine was never anticipated.

"And it was here that my beloved children met with their cruel fate
in a senseless war in which we had no part," Selvarani added.

What is even more devastating for this unfortunate mother is that there
was no decent burial for her lost children. She was only informed several
days later that they had been cremated somewhere in the Madhu area.

27-year-old Muniyandi Ravi, a farmer from Iranailupaikullam in the Wanni
district was orphaned along with his12-year-old brother Muniyandi Kodi-swaran
and sister M. Udayadevi, 23, after their mother was instantly killed in
the attack along with their other brother M. Udayakumar 20. His sister
Udayadevi is also hospitalised with sharp wounds caused by the exploding
artillery shells. Their father had died several years ago of natural causes.

According to the refugees now at the Vavuniya Hospital there are yet
some 10,000 people living in the Madhu Church compound. The army, in the
meantime who under instructions from the President has fallen back some
seven kilometres from the shrine, has closed exit passages bringing all
movement to and from Madhu to a standstill. Attempts by us to reach the
church were abruptly halted at the final army outpost seven kilometres
from the shrine, by a soldier there who politely informed us that travel
beyond that point was not advisable since it was a 'no man's land' heavily
mined and anything could happen.

The only people to cross this line since the attack on the church were
senior clergymen from the Catholic Church. This group included the Archbishop
of Colombo Rt. Rev. Dr. Nicholas Marcus Fernando, Bishop Oswald Gomis,
Bishop Malcolm Ranjith and the Apostolic Nuncio in Sri Lanka Rt. Rev. Dr.
Thomas Yeh.

They were joined by a UNHCR convoy carrying relief supplies to the displaced
people at the church. The UNHCR was the lone aid agency that was stationed
in Madhu earlier. They pulled out following the sudden attack but returned
to the area following an appeal made by the Mannar Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr.
Rayappu Joseph.

Since then Madhu has been cut off from the rest of the country with
the LTTE now reportedly in control.

Later in a joint statement, the Bishops called upon both the government
forces and the LTTE to spare the sacred shrine and not allow it to become
a strategic objective of the war at any time.

According to military and other sources in the district, the Tiger aim
to capture the area was of little military interest for them. It was purely
timed at embarrassing the Government of President Chandrika Bandaranaike
Kumaratunga and perhaps to hurt the vote bank of the Catholics elsewhere
in the country, ahead of the crucial December 21 Presidential Elections.

Living in fear and uncertainty

On the spot report from the Mannar mainland

It is a city waiting to empty its citizens at the first sign of trouble,
and the people of Mannar are not taking any chances whatsoever.

The LTTE has so far spared this predominantly Tamil Catholic island
although it is well within the range of its deadly artillery power. The
menacing threat however has sent a cloud of uncertainty over this jittery
city.

The first to pack up and leave were those from the Sinhalese community
who fear they would be prime targets should the city fall to the LTTE.
On the other hand the Tamils themselves do not feel safe and have taken
precautionary steps to face any eventuality.

The worst hit was the Mannar Hospital since, all but one of the 19 doctors
on its staff cadre have already fled with emergency and other services
left to be manned by nurses, matrons and other minor hospital staff.

The wards are nearly empty of patients and the OPD is deserted. "There
are plenty of drugs and medicines but it does not serve any purpose since
it cannot be administered to a patient without a diagnosis", a senior nurse
said summing up the situation. Patients are being turned away and told
to seek treatment from private clinics, she said.

Other than that life seems to go on as usual with banks, cooperatives,
schools and other essential services functioning normally despite the looming
threat of war. The police and the military are everywhere.

However there is also a looming threat of a food crisis since shipments
into the city have turned into a trickle owing to the uncertain ground
situation on the main highway which links the island to the rest of the
country.

Civilian traffic on the 85-kilometre stretch of road that begins from
Vavuniya to Mannar has dropped to zero and entry into the area is only
allowed with a valid permit by the military authorities, who have also
taken over the issuing of gasoline.

The situation following these restrictions has quickly given way to
a roaring black market trade in Mannar with a kilogram of rice going at
Rs. 50 and sometimes even more. The prices of other essentials are also
bound to sharply increase if the current situation does not ease within
the next few days, a spokesman for the Mannar Divisional Secretariat said.

A senior military official based in the region denied there were any
restrictions placed on the movement of civilians to and from the island.
" Nonetheless," he said "if everyone opted to take to their heels at the
drop of an artillery shell then sooner or later we will all end up on a
lonely beach front somewhere in the south with only the sea in front of
us.

'This madness has got to stop and the people must have confidence in
the security forces because we are here to protect them from such threats,"
the officer said.

Another added crisis facing Mannar is the influx of hundreds of refugees
from adjoining villages who have fled their homes for fear of being caught
in the cross fire between the LTTE and the security forces.

They decided to move out after the army and other paramilitary units
and police, who fell back from other fronts in the recent fighting, began
building up defences close to their homes.

Many people mainly farmers and fisherfolk, fled the village of Vankalai
approximately 10 kilometres west of the Mannar mainland.

A total of 146 families have been put up at the St. Xavier's Girls'
High School in Mannar and the figure is expected to rise in the next few
days, says the Grama Seveka for the area A. Sobomati Croos.

"At the moment there is adequate food, medicine and other essentials,
but what is worrying is that if the shipments to the island are affected
then we will have a serious crisis on our hands,"Mr. Croos said.

He added that another 200 displaced people were also being sheltered
at another school in Thalwadu, on the outskirts of the main town. S. Anthonymutte
55, a fisherman fled his village in Vankalai along with his wife and two
children and took refuge at the St. Xavier's Girls' High School.

More than a year ago he lost his 25-year-old daughter S. Emmaculate
in the unexplained Lion Air plane crash which went down in Tiger country
somewhere close to Mannar. She was a student at the Jaffna University and
was en route to Colombo where she was scheduled to make the trip to her
family's home at Vankalai by road, he tearfully lamented. "And now the
whole family is displaced and our future uncertain," Mr. Antonymutte said.

Another fisherman from the same village R. Ratnam 53, did not hesitate
to flee his home along with his entire family shortly after the clandestine
rebel radio 'Voice of the Tigers' warned of attacks on military targets
in the area.

"By now we had already heard as to what was happening in other areas
such as in Vavuniya and the Welioya belt in the east, and it would have
been foolish to stay back. From now on it will be-a-day to day existence
but yet it's safer here, than in the village," he added.

Similar tales were told by Subramaniam Pushparanai, a mother of four
who grabbed whatever belongings possible and along with her farmer husband
joined their fellow villagers in the exodus to Mannar.

She and her family have no plans of returning to their village just
now, since she feels it could be attacked as there is a military garrison
in the area.